Sport Forward: Liang beats Murphy to reach final

Murphy said Liang would have to tighten up his game in the final

Liang Wenbo took advantage of Shaun Murphy's scrappy play to beat the Englishman 6-5 and secure a place in the final of the Shanghai Masters.

Murphy had dropped just one frame on his way to the semi-final but was out of sorts in a generally poor match.

A 102 break in the second frame put Liang 2-0 up but that was as good as the scoring would get from either man.

But Liang prevailed to reach his first ranking tournament final, where he will play John Higgins or Ronnie O'Sullivan.

Afterwards Murphy said it was a poor end to an otherwise good week.

606: DEBATE

Well done for beating Murphy, can he now go on and even win the title?

sthendry

"I came into the match full of confidence but I played about 60%, whereas earlier in the week I was about 90%," he said.

And he warned Liang that he would need to raise his game in the final.

"If he plays like he played against me today he will lose, but he is capable of winning if he pots more balls and plays better safety," he said.

"He beat me today but if I had played better and not missed the easy balls then I would have won.

"It was my fault I lost. He's very entertaining and fun to watch, but this is about winning, not entertaining."

Sport Forward